How to Be a Pyrrhonist

How to Be a Pyrrhonist PDF

Author: Richard Bett

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-03-21

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1108471072

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Explores what it was like to argue and to live as a practitioner of Pyrrhonist skepticism.

How to Be a Pyrrhonist

How to Be a Pyrrhonist PDF

Author: Richard Bett

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-03-21

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1108609465

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

What was it like to be a practitioner of Pyrrhonist skepticism? This important volume brings together for the first time a selection of Richard Bett's essays on ancient Pyrrhonism, allowing readers a better understanding of the key aspects of this school of thought. The volume examines Pyrrhonism's manner of self-presentation, including its methods of writing, its desire to show how special it is, and its use of humor; it considers Pyrrhonism's argumentative procedures regarding specific topics, such as signs, space, or the Modes; and it explores what it meant in practice to live as a Pyrrhonist, including the kind of ethical outlook which Pyrrhonism might allow and, in general, the character of a skeptical life - and how far these might strike us as feasible or desirable. It also shows how Pyrrhonism often raises questions that matter to us today, both in our everyday lives and in our philosophical reflection.

Pyrrhonism

Pyrrhonism PDF

Author: Adrian Kuzminski

Publisher: Studies in Comparative Philosophy and Religion

Published: 2010-03

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780739125076

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Adrian Kuzminski argues that Pyrrhonism, an ancient Greek philosophy, can best be understood as a Western form of Buddhism. Not only is its founder, Pyrrho, reported to have traveled to India and been influenced by contacts with Indian sages, but a close comparison of ancient Buddhist and Pyrrhonian texts suggests a common philosophical practice, seeking liberation through suspension of judgment with regard to beliefs about non-evident things.

Pyrrhonian Skepticism

Pyrrhonian Skepticism PDF

Author: Walter Sinnott-Armstrong

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2004-07-22

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 0190290897

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Throughout the history of philosophy, skepticism has posed one of the central challenges of epistemology. Opponents of skepticism--including externalists, contextualists, foundationalists, and coherentists--have focussed largely on one particular variety of skepticism, often called Cartesian or Academic skepticism, which makes the radical claim that nobody can know anything. However, this version of skepticism is something of a straw man, since virtually no philosopher endorses this radical skeptical claim. The only skeptical view that has been truly held--by Sextus, Montaigne, Hume, Wittgenstein, and, most recently, Robert Fogelin--has been Pyrrohnian skepticism. Pyrrhonian skeptics do not assert Cartesian skepticism, but neither do they deny it. The Pyrrhonian skeptics' doubts run so deep that they suspend belief even about Cartesian skepticism and its denial. Nonetheless, some Pyrrhonians argue that they can still hold "common beliefs of everyday life" and can even claim to know some truths in an everyday way. This edited volume presents previously unpublished articles on this subject by a strikingly impressive group of philosophers, who engage with both historical and contemporary versions of Pyrrhonian skepticism. Among them are Gisela Striker, Janet Broughton, Don Garrett, Ken Winkler, Hans Sluga, Ernest Sosa, Michael Williams, Barry Stroud, Robert Fogelin, and Roy Sorensen. This volume is thematically unified and will interest a broad spectrum of scholars in epistemology and the history of philosophy.

How to Keep an Open Mind

How to Keep an Open Mind PDF

Author: Sextus Empiricus

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-04-13

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 069120604X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

How ancient skepticism can help you attain tranquility by learning to suspend judgment Along with Stoicism and Epicureanism, Skepticism is one of the three major schools of ancient Greek philosophy that claim to offer a way of living as well as thinking. How to Keep an Open Mind provides an unmatched introduction to skepticism by presenting a fresh, modern translation of key passages from the writings of Sextus Empiricus, the only Greek skeptic whose works have survived. While content in daily life to go along with things as they appear to be, Sextus advocated—and provided a set of techniques to achieve—a radical suspension of judgment about the way things really are, believing that such nonjudging can be useful for challenging the unfounded dogmatism of others and may help one achieve a state of calm and tranquility. In an introduction, Richard Bett makes the case that the most important lesson we can draw from Sextus’s brand of skepticism today may be an ability to see what can be said on the other side of any issue, leading to a greater open-mindedness. Complete with the original Greek on facing pages, How to Keep an Open Mind offers a compelling antidote to the closed-minded dogmatism of today’s polarized world.

Sextus, Montaigne, Hume

Sextus, Montaigne, Hume PDF

Author: Brian C. Ribeiro

Publisher: Brill Studies in Skepticism

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 9789004465398

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

"This work invites us to view the Pyrrhonist tradition as involving all those who share a commitment to the activity of Pyrrhonizing and develops fresh, provocative readings of Sextus, Montaigne, and Hume as radical Pyrrhonizing skeptics: From the aspirationalism of Sextan Pyrrhonism, to Montaigne's skeptical fideism and his unusual approach to the writing process, to the vexing interpretive issues surrounding Hume's skepticism, each figure offers us new insights into what it can mean to Pyrrhonize"--

Pyrrho, His Antecedents, and His Legacy

Pyrrho, His Antecedents, and His Legacy PDF

Author: Richard Bett

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 9780199256617

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In the absence of surviving works by Pyrrho, scholars have tended to treat his thought as essentially the same as the long subsequent sceptical tradition. This text offers a different interpretation of his thought.

Five Modes of Scepticism

Five Modes of Scepticism PDF

Author: Stefan Sienkiewicz

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-03-28

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 0192519271

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Five Modes of Scepticism examines the argument forms that lie at the heart of Pyrrhonian scepticism as expressed in the writings of Sextus Empiricus. These are the Agrippan modes of disagreement, hypothesis, infinite regression, reciprocity and relativity; modes which are supposed to bring about that quintessentially sceptical mental state of suspended judgement. Stefan Sienkiewicz analyses how the modes are supposed to do this, both individually and collectively, and from two perspectives. On the one hand there is the perspective of the sceptic's dogmatic opponent and on the other there is the perspective of the sceptic himself. Epistemically speaking, the dogmatist and the sceptic are two different creatures with two different viewpoints. The book elucidates the corresponding differences in the argumentative structure of the modes depending on which of these perspectives is adopted. Previous treatments of the modes have interpreted them from a dogmatic perspective; one of the tasks of the present work is to reorient the way in which scholars have traditionally engaged with the modes. Sienkiewicz advocates moving away from the perspective of the sceptic's opponent - the dogmatist - towards the perspective of the sceptic and trying to make sense of how the sceptic can come to suspend judgement on the basis of the Agrippan modes.

The Aporetic Tradition in Ancient Philosophy

The Aporetic Tradition in Ancient Philosophy PDF

Author: George Karamanolis

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 1107110157

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The first comprehensive study of the function and value of aporia, or puzzlement, as a key tool in ancient philosophical enquiry.

Ancient Scepticism

Ancient Scepticism PDF

Author: Harald Thorsrud

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-12-05

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1317492838

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Scepticism, a philosophical tradition that casts doubt on our ability to gain knowledge of the world and suggests suspending judgement in the face of uncertainty, has been influential since is beginnings in ancient Greece. Harald Thorsrud provides an engaging, rigorous introduction to the arguments, central themes and general concerns of ancient Scepticism, from its beginnings with Pyrrho of Elis (c.360-c.270 BCE) to the writings of Sextus Empiricus in the second century CE. Thorsrud explores the differences among Sceptics and examines in particular the separation of the Scepticism of Pyrrho from its later form - Academic Scepticism - which arose when its ideas were introduced into Plato's "Academy" in the third century BCE. He also unravels the prolonged controversy that developed between Academic Scepticism and Stoicism, the prevailing dogmatism of the day. Steering an even course through the many differences of scholarly opinion surrounding Scepticism, Thorsrud provides a balanced appraisal of its enduring significance by showing why it remains so philosophically interesting and how ancient interpretations differ from modern ones.